“Wow...” Cuphea let out a childlike exclamation, then immediately put her hands over her mouth.
We had arrived at a theater. When planning the date, I had secretly asked people close to her what she might like, and her childhood friend Linum had given me some very useful information. Much to my surprise, she had borrowed some of Linum’s romance novels and had gotten really into them. One of them was regarded as a classic, and upon learning that it had been turned into a play, I had rushed to secure us seats. After some effort, I’d managed to get good seats so close you could see the sweat flying off the actors.
It was a story about love between people of different social standings and seemed to be quite popular among women. While I wasn’t one to care about other people’s love affairs, the actresses were beautiful and talented, so I didn’t mind watching them. It was also cute seeing how Cuphea’s expression changed throughout the play and how hard she clapped with the rest of the audience at the end, so I figured it was safe to call it a success.
Cuphea was moved to tears, so I handed her a handkerchief. “Thanks,” she said, wiping her eyes.
“You’re welcome.” After leaving the theater, she was still excited and kept going on about the play, until...
“Hey, Albert.”
“What’s up?”
“The play was really fun, but those were pretty good seats, right?”
“Like I said when we went in, I just happened to be given two tickets. They were free.” One of the things I’d been concerned about when planning the date was the budget. Not because I was worried about my wallet, but rather because Cuphea, Linum, and Edel all cared deeply about the orphanage and poured all their money into it. I figured if I took her on a blatantly extravagant date, Cuphea would feel guilty and wouldn’t be able to enjoy herself.
That was why I wanted it to seem like I’d acquired the tickets by pure chance. There were only two, so we couldn’t bring anyone else, and they’d go to waste if she refused. The play’s showtime had been coming up, so I’d managed to convince her that I hadn’t spent money, I’d just gotten lucky. It might have seemed like an insignificant thing to lie about, but sometimes that sort of lie was surprisingly effective at lightening the mental burden of accepting a gift. Also, if I’d told her that I’d just bought them, she probably would have insisted on paying half. That was just the type of person she was.
“Seats that good? For free?”
“It must be good karma for all my noble deeds.”
“Uh-huh.” Cuphea looked like she still had something to say, but she didn’t press the matter and I decided to change the subject.
“It’s a little late, but wanna get lunch?”
“Sure. Um, wanna come to my place?” While it was an honor to be invited to a woman’s house, it had a slightly different meaning in this case—she was asking if I wanted to eat at the orphanage.
“That’s fine, but this is a date. I’d like it to just be the two of us.”
Cuphea nervously played with her lips in response. “O-Oh.”
As we headed to our destination, somebody called out to me. “Oh, if it ain’t Albert!” I looked over and saw the fruit seller standing under the eaves of his shop. My number of acquaintances increased the longer I stayed in the city, so naturally my number of male acquaintances had increased as well. It would have been nice to limit it to only women, but life didn’t work that way.
“Can’t you see I’m on a date? Have some manners,” I reluctantly responded in a displeased voice.
“Oh, pardon me. Wait, is that the lass from Edel’s place?” Apparently, he knew Edel. Blushing, Cuphea bowed politely.
“Does it matter? See you, old man.”
“Wait, wait. At least take this as an apology for interrupting you,” the man said, tossing us two fist-sized fruits. I caught them and waved goodbye as we left his shop behind.
“You know him?” Cuphea asked. I handed her one of the fruits and she hesitantly accepted it.
“He’s got a cute daughter.”
“Oh.” Cuphea gave me a disapproving look.
“Look, she was only like fifteen or something. I’m not interested.”
“Uh-huh.” Her tone was completely flat, making it hard to tell if she actually believed me.
“One time, there were some guys harassing her while she was tending the store.”
“I can see where this is going.”
“Aha ha ha. As you can imagine, I drove them off and the old man was really grateful when he got back. He probably remembered me from that.”
“That sounds like you.” The sharpness disappeared from her gaze and she gave me a gentle smile.
Several more people called out to me after that. There was a man running a food stall, the beautiful owner of the flower shop, an old woman street vendor, and a little girl with her mother. Although talking to men was a waste of time, I could never ignore a woman, no matter her age.
“Has it ever crossed your mind that maybe you know too many people?” Cuphea asked.
“I explore the city on my days off, so I meet a lot of people.” I was just looking for women, but that hadn’t been going too well recently.
“I don’t feel like it’s that easy to get so close to someone that they’ll call out to you whenever they see you.”
“I’m sure they’re just bored. Anyway, we’re almost there.” We arrived at a stone building with a sign marking it as a restaurant.
“Are we eating here?”
“Nah, there’s still somewhere I wanna visit, so I was thinking we’d get food to go.” Entering the restaurant, I scanned the kitchen and quickly found a man with a scar around his eye. “Hey, old man!” I called out to him.
“Oh, Al! Lunch to go, right? Hold on just a sec.”
“Sure.” I had spoken with him ahead of time, so it didn’t take long. A short while later, a girl came out holding two bundles wrapped in big leaves. It was the owner’s eleven-year-old daughter.
“Here you go, Al.”
I took the bundles and paid. “Thanks.”
“Is she your girlfriend?” the girl asked, looking up at Cuphea.
Cuphea’s face immediately turned red. “N-No!”
“She’s not, but we are on a date,” I explained.
“No fair! I wanna go on a date too!” Her idea of a date was probably along the lines of a playdate, but I still couldn’t agree to it.
“Once you’re a little older.” Seven years older, to be precise. Then neither I nor the law would have a problem.
“It’s a promise!”
“Hey, Al! Don’t you dare lay a hand on my daughter!” an angry voice echoed from the kitchen.
“Ha ha ha.” Chuckling, I left the restaurant with Cuphea.
“She’s bigger than Linaria, but she’s still a child, you know?” Linaria was one of the girls from the orphanage. She called me “Al” and seemed to be fond of me.
“Their food is good and cheap, so I go there a lot. One time that girl got hurt, so I asked the princess to heal her.” The owner had been so impressed that a customer had arranged for a holy woman to heal his daughter that he’d been doing all sorts of services for me since. His daughter also seemed to be really fond of me and the princess.
“I’ve lived in this city my whole life, and I’m pretty sure you know more people here than I do.”
“A lovely lady could be around any corner, so I lend a hand whenever possible.” I had been certain Cuphea would glare at me, but she didn’t say anything. After walking a little farther, we reached a park.
“Oh, this is a nice place. The children play here all the time. Linum and I would come here when we were little and I’d force her to play tag with me.” Linum had told me the same thing. According to her, after being forced to exercise with Cuphea, she would make Cuphea play house with her.